Product Quality as a Basis for Consumers’ Patronage
CHAPTER ONE
Objective of the study
The objectives of the study are;
- To ascertain the relationship between product quality and customer’s patronage
- To ascertain the relationship between product quality and customer’s loyalty
- To ascertain the relationship between product quality and product’s price
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Customer Patronage
In the context of marketing, patronage is an exchange process where one receives a service or goods in exchange for money or other considerations. Customer patronage is therefore, the purchase of goods and service from a vendor by a customer or a business. The customer purchases and expects to derive benefits or satisfaction from the goods or services as consideration for the exchange for money paid. According to Anderson and Sullivan (1993), customer expectations of satisfaction leads to an increase in tendencies to purchasing a particular brand. They reiterated that firms that provide high quality products and services on a regular basis will have more satisfied customers and these customers will likely re-patronize the service and products next time. These assertions are supported by Kivela, Inbakaran and Reece (1999) when indicating that comparatively, firms that offer service of superior quality is bound to get their customers satisfied as well as get higher economic returns more than their competitors. Oftentimes managers use customer satisfaction to forecast brand loyalty that ultimately lead to repurchase. On this basis it is expected that customers of restaurants with opt for the sources that meet their quality and value expectations over those that do not; and ignorant will experience customer traffic decline as guests support competing restaurants (Stevens, Knutson and Patton, 1995). Thus, a customer’s loyalty is founded not only on firm’s remarkable but may also be influenced by other factors such as restaurant image, personnel quality, food quality, restaurant atmosphere, and products’ price, that is pivotal in the delivery process.
Consumer Buying Process
Decision making is systematic and not automatic (Goodhope, 2013). It is a process which emanates out of conscious effort to arrive at a beneficial outcome. Under normal circumstances decision making requires a thoughtful process to ensure attainment of decision making objectives. Making decision as to which brand of a product to buy can be a tasking one in face of many options to choose from like choosing toothpaste. Lawan and Zanna (2013) admitted that at any one time, we make decisions concerning every aspect of our lives; these decisions are generally made without stopping to think about how we make them and what is involved in the particular decision-making process itself. Behind the visible act of making a purchase is a decision process divided into three major components: input, process and output (Schiffman & Kanuk, 1997 in Lawan & Zanna, 2013).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought to product quality as a basis for consumer’s patronage
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
Primary source and Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain product quality as a basis for consumer’s patronage.
In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of product quality as a basis for consumer’s patronage.
Summary
This study was on product quality as a basis for consumer’s patronage. Three objectives were raised which included: To ascertain the relationship between product quality and customer’s patronage, to ascertain the relationship between product quality and customer’s loyalty and to ascertain the relationship between product quality and product’s price. In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 200 staff of selected restaurants, Enugu state. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made up managers, bar attendants, cashiers and junior staff was used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
The results of the study statistically showed positive relationship between price fairness, food/menu quality, firm’s personnel quality, customer trust, restaurant image, and restaurant’s atmosphere with customer loyalty. So also positive relationship is found to exist between customer loyalty and customer patronage. On the basis of this findings therefore, the study concluded that price fairness, food quality, firm’s personnel quality, customer trust, have significant positive influence on consumer’s patronage
Recommendation
The should provide varieties of services in their business premises in order to retain consumers.
The should come up with niche premises to cater for the different categories of consumer groups.
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